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Malala, Who Was Almost Killed Trying To Get An Education, Is Off To Oxford

Malala, Who Was Almost Killed Trying To Get An Education, Is Off To Oxford
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai speaks during an exclusive interview with Reuters in Maiduguri, Nigeria July 18, 2017. Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde
Afolabi Sotunde / Reuters
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai speaks during an exclusive interview with Reuters in Maiduguri, Nigeria July 18, 2017. Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde

Malala Yousafzai - the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ rights to education - has won a place to study at Oxford University.

People across Britain have celebrated the news, praising the 19-year-old human rights campaigner’s “strength, passion and determination” in earning a chance to do a degree at one of the world’s most prestigious universities.

“A few years ago, Malala was shot for fighting for women’s right to education,” campaigner Luke Waltham wrote on Twitter.

“Today she got accepted into Oxford University. So much respect.”

Yousafzai confirmed on social media this morning that she will be studying philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford from October.

“So excited to go to Oxford!” she wrote. “Well done to all A-level students - the hardest year.

“Best wishes for life ahead!”

Yousafzai rose to prominence after she was shot in the head by the Taliban in October 2012, when her calls for equal rights angered militants in her homeland of Pakistan.

A gunman fired three shots at the girl, then 14, while she was travelling home on a school bus.

One of the bullets hit the left side of her forehead, travelling the length of her face through the skin and into her shoulder.

She was airlifted to Birmingham, where her life-threatening injuries were treated at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Yousafzai, who remained in Britain after her treatment, later became the youngest person to ever win a Nobel Prize.

Aged just 16, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work as a woman’s campaigner.

In April this year, she also became the youngest ever UN Messenger for Peace.

Other supporters of the teen also took to Twitter to celebrate the news about her A Level results:

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